Monday, September 29, 2008

Ah yes, the air is cooling, the leaves are changing and there aren't any more races for me to lose. Fall is here!

No big fan of the season myself, I go for a ride after work and everyone is carrying their bikes around. Which is boring and hard. Then they tell me the only races are on dirt. Where I might get dirty. Sorry!

Anyhoos, the '09 road season is basically underway as everyone is trying to dive head first into a very shallow sponsorship pool.

Anyways, SUCK ON THIS VELONEWS WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!You might call him Ed, you might call him Ted, but he's signing to the dorky named CERVELO-TEST TEAM!

That's right, you heard it here first:

TEDDY KING WILL RIDE FOR CERVELO-TEST TEAM FOR 2009

In service of Mellow Juan himself, Mr. Carlos Sastre.

And that my friends, is what you call a scoop!

Coincidentally enough, Salem based vacuum salesman/pro cyclist Omer Kem has been entrusted to fill out the Bissell squad with a couple "ghost riders". Word is Carson Miller was offered a position, AND TURNED IT DOWN TO RIDE ANOTHER YEAR WITH RUBICON!

Ghost riders? Yes, UCI teams are required to have a certain amount of riders under a certain age (1/2 their riders need to be under 26, I think). Good luck hiring a US based team with riders that young. So what do they do? They find riders who are good, but not that good, give 'em a new bike, a kit and tell them to have fun. They're like players on injured reserve in the NBA. Maybe they even get to ride a few races as a pro.

Like injured reserve, teams use their ghost riders differently. Ghost rider for Toyota? They've already got 25 super-fast pro guys. A team like Bissell, well, they actually use their ghost riders once in a while. There's only 14 guys listed on their team site, and Zirbel is gonna spend at least half the season hurt. So, anyone who's reading this, if Bissell offers you a spot, even if it's unpaid, FOR GOD'S SAKE TAKE IT!!

In more local news:-Russell Cree has rode in to PDX to single-handedly save the bicycle racing community. He helped make Broadmark/HB huge, your club might be next.

-The grown up part of CMG (Seth, Aaron, Kyle etc.) may have plans with some sponsors which you may have heard of. They may also acquire riders you may have heard of. Still under the HPChiro banner.